


Sanders Masks

by Blue_Mistfall



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: All masks have their own powers, Brief mentions of violence (not explicit), Mask!Janus, Mask!Logan, Mask!Patton, Mask!Remus, Mask!Remy, Mask!Roman, Mask!Virgil, Shadow-walking, Sides are souls locked in masks, The past is another country, Thomas is an actor in this AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26082022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Mistfall/pseuds/Blue_Mistfall
Summary: Thomas didn't think that purchasing a 'mystery chest' would make his house so... inhabited.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 27





	1. It Worked

**Author's Note:**

> This was HEAVILY inspired by the trailer to the upcoming Crash Bandicoot: It's About Time game.

Perhaps they had put books inside. What else can be put in such stylized pirate chests? – Thomas thought, having finally put it onto the floor. Of course it was a fake chest, for the real one would’ve dissolved under the ocean waves and sand a long-long time ago. He had purchased it at the final sale of a local antiques store just because it was the only thing that had attracted his attention. Besides, Thomas knew that treasures could be found anywhere, you only had to take a chance. And he had done so.  
Opening the chest did not take much time as well (another proof that it was fake: a real lock would’ve gotten rusty). At first Thomas thought that it did not contain anything at all, for its contents were so dark that they were hardly seen against the inner walls of the chest. Those were not coins, or books, or tokens. Those were masks. Six African wooden masks, all of various shapes and decorated with fur, raffia and feathers – and covered in soot so that it was almost impossible to see their features clearly. Judging by the touch, one of them even was half-covered in snake skin. And they were quite large: almost head-and-a-half in height.  
“No, I’m not wearing you,” Thomas said aloud, almost disappointed with the results. “Turning into a green-headed trickster is the last thing I need. No siree. Of course I’ll clean you, but not now. Go back to your slumber, okay?”

Thomas was in the middle of Ready Player One in his bedroom when he heard a strangest sound. Howling? Dogs, perhaps… No, wait. There were no dogs in the house, and the sound came from downstairs! Thomas put the book aside and strained his ears.   
“Ooooooo… ooooooo…”  
Bang! Bang!  
It was not the sound of something heavy falling onto the floor. It was… as if something was thrown into the wall. Not feeling his feet, Thomas crawled off the bed, attempting to be as quiet as possible.  
“Oooooo…”  
Wait a second. Such sounds could be emitted by human throat, not by animal’s. Burglars, Thomas thought. Wait, burglars are supposed to keep silent! And they do not howl… but then, who does?  
The sound became more intense. It was not howling, as Thomas had initially thought – it was whimpering. He tip-toed downstairs to the living room, and what he saw made his feet glue to the floor: it was one of the masks. It was hovering over the table in the middle, and Thomas could clearly hear a muffled voice coming from it.  
“My body… my poor body… why aren’t they waking?..”  
There was a click in Thomas’s mind as he recalled that there was a belief that souls of the dead could live in masks. African belief… voodoo masks… Having collected the remains of his will, Thomas stepped out of his impromptu hiding place:  
“Greetings.”  
The mask turned around and dashed to the window with a squeak, but then bumped into the glass and dropped onto the floor. Thomas lost no time and grabbed it by the sides:  
“Gotcha!”  
Silence fell for a short time, while the man and the mask were examining each other. Surprisingly, this mask wasn’t covered in soot – or what was that black stuff? – anymore. It appeared to be painted white. Its left eye was circled with black paint (this eye was not a hole; instead, it resembled a little burning piece of coal), while the right one was hidden under the black and purple ‘fringe’ made out of raffia. Generally, most of all this mask was a stylized version of a gloomy teenager, its triangular ‘chin’ only increasing this impression.  
“Well?” the mask asked dimly. “Why aren’t you throwing me in horror? Judging by your milky face, you’re not familiar with talking masks.”  
“I’m not, but why should I throw you? It’s not too pleasant,” Thomas replied, feeling uneasy. “And what do you mean that my face is milky?”  
“I used to have a much darker face,” the mask pointed out. “My tribe practices the custom of transferring the souls of the dying into masks. This obviously happened to me, but it’s strange that I don’t remember anything about it. Besides… judging by the surroundings, I’ve been dormant for more than a couple of moons.”  
“Definitely,” Thomas feebly nodded. “My name’s Thomas, and what’s yours?”  
The mask glanced to the side, furrowing its eyebrows:  
“Another odd question. Right, it’s not so odd, but… I can’t remember my name either. My name when I had a physical body, I mean. But I’m pretty sure I was male then… Yeah, this must be the thing that they were talking about. After the soul is transferred into a mask, it gains a new name… If so, then my name is Anx-Vi.”  
“Anx-Vi,” Thomas repeated. “It has a nice ring to it. Anx-Vi.”  
The mask let out a hardly noticeable smile, but then frowned again:  
“Can you let me go, please? It’s not too comfortable to be stared at like this.”  
“Sorry.”  
After being let go Anx-Vi soared up and circled the room, examining everything he spotted. Meanwhile Thomas placed all the remaining masks on the table:  
“I guess they are alive as well, right? Do you know who they are?”  
“Definitely alive, I can sense it, and soon they will wake up… why do I know it?” Anx-Vi wondered, going down to have a closer look. “Maybe this knowledge arrives when you’re locked in this stupid wooden board… Who could’ve transferred me into the mask at the first place? It’s not done automatically, someone has to lead the process… Oh no!”  
“What is it?”  
“I’m all right with the twins. They’ve always been inseparable, and so it should be even now, but how did he end up here?” Anx-Vi pointed at the mask, the left half of which was covered in snake skin. “I know them all. Perhaps our souls were transferred practically at the same time.”  
“I’m okay with that. You’re sentient, and this means I should be able to find common language with all of you,” Thomas sighed, rubbing his temples. “But how do you know English if you… came from the past where it could’ve not existed at all?”  
Anx-Vi hesitated:  
“That’s a good question. I think it’s adaptation or something… At first I was really shocked to not have arms and legs anymore, but now I’m feeling better. Should be similar. Or there’s something with the universal language of souls, I don’t know.”  
“The main thing is that we’re able to communicate. Great.”  
“Yeah, great,” Anx-Vi nodded (as far as it was possible). “One of them should be able to explain.”   
As if having heard his statement, another mask soared from the table and shook, the black dust falling off it. Initially Thomas thought that not all of it was gone, but then he saw that the mask itself was black with angular indigo patterns and a wide striped band around the forehead, over which brownish rough fur was placed. In addition this mask’s eyes were not round, like Anx-Vi’s, but rectangular with rounded angles, resembling glasses.  
“Ah, I guess it worked.” This mask’s voice was calm and collected.  
“It definitely did,” Anx-Vi sighed. The new mask turned around.  
“Excellent. It worked with all of us…”  
“Be so kind and explain why it happened to me in the first place!” Anx-Vi roared, hovering over the new mask. “At least tell me your new name, for I don’t remember a damn thing.”  
“First of all, I know that your new name is Anx-Vi. My new one is Lo-Go.” The new one – Lo-Go – twirled around to see Thomas. “Salutations. I’m impressed that you still haven’t escaped.”  
“I’ve already heard that,” Thomas muttered under his nose.   
“Do you mind if I answer Anx-Vi’s question first?” Lo-Go asked. Having received a shake of the head as a reply, he cleared his inexistent throat. “The answer is simple: you were dying when we were attacked. You have practically burnt down, life was hardly pulsing in you, so you were the first to be transferred into a mask. I had to complete the process in haste, for the twins were already mortally wounded…”  
“And you were the last one,” Anx-Vi finished.  
A wave of horror enveloped Thomas. No, it appeared not because of the attack or a murder being mentioned – the thing that got him was Lo-Go’s almost peaceful tone, as if he was talking about purchasing soap. Culture shock, dammit!  
“So this is why there’s a gap in my memory,” Anx-Vi murmured. “I was almost dead by then… Tell me, Lo-Go, have the twins suffered?”  
“I did my best to ensure the quick and painless transportation,” Lo-Go assured. “Nothing else depended on me… And what might that be?” He hovered over Thomas’s shoulder, attempting to have a look at his phone, for the man decided to search for some information on the African mask culture. “That picture is constantly changing! I see that this new world contains magic as well!”  
“It’s not magic, Lo-Go, it’s technology,” Thomas clarified. “You may not believe, but now one can access almost any data they want using such devices.”  
“How?” Anx-Vi joined.  
Thomas rubbed the back of his head. It was going to be a long night.


	2. Having a Meeting Without Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All six masks are awake, and Thomas tries to establish some kind of order.

“Agh! Why isn’t it working?” Anx-Vi huffed, soaring up. He had been (unsuccessfully) trying to tap on the icons on Thomas’s phone screen with his chin.  
“Because it’s sensitive to heat,” Thomas explained for the thousandth time. “It’s hard to manipulate it wearing gloves. If you want so, I can show you.”  
“I’d like to, if I have a chance,” Anx-Vi snapped. It was fair, for Lo-Go had been asking questions almost non-stop: each new answer caused a new wave. Thomas personally believed that introducing the aliens from the past to the modern world from mobile devices was not the best choice, but then… what was?  
“All right.” Lo-Go approached to the kitchen to examine everything stored there.   
Some minutes later Thomas almost regretted saying so, for Anx-Vi bombarded him with questions after listening to just one song (it was Viva la Vida). Indeed, you do forget that such things have not existed from the beginning of time, Thomas thought, searching for pictures of music instruments. He got so involved into this process that he didn’t register a shade approaching to his right ear.  
“BOO!”  
Thomas dropped his phone and saw that two more masks woke up. These two both were of rectangular shape, with feathers on the tops and oval-shaped eyes, but that was when the similarities ended. The mask which was for now ‘rolling in the air laughing’ (it was the best statement describing its motions) was mostly of steel grey color with deep forest green and black stripes, dark brown (and one grey) feathers on the top and – gosh – two dried octopus tentacles under its nose, resembling curled moustache.  
“I apologize. He’s always such,” the second mask said. This one was white with red and golden stripes, and the feathers on the top of it were much larger and reddish brown. “I see that you’ve already been introduced to us. Hmm… I wonder what my name is now?”  
“Oh come on!” the first mask interfered, having ceased laughing (now this was some maniacal laughter). “It’s OBVIOUS! You can call me Du-Ke, and this one is Cre-Ro, the posher and dumber version of me!”  
“Wait up, guys! Are you the twins? Lo-Go mentioned twins,” Thomas interfered. It promised to be the classic scenario of constantly bickering siblings, even though they were from the past. Du-Ke and Cre-Ro exchanged glances.  
“Lo-Go? I guess this is the new name of our shaman,” Cre-Ro mused. “Hey, wasn’t I the first to wake up?”  
“Not even the second,” Anx-Vi sarcastically put in, having made Cre-Ro sigh. But then the red-and-golden mask tensed up:  
“Is that you? So Lo-Go managed to revive you as well? Strange… why don’t I remember your name?”  
“It seems to be an ordinary part of being a mask,” Anx-Vi replied. “I can’t remember my own name when I was a human, as well as yours. For now I am Anx-Vi.”  
“Ah, ah, ah, my name, my beautiful name!” Du-Ke whimpered, hardly keeping another fit of laughter in. “Bet you wanted to do just that, Cre-Ro?”  
“I did not!” Cre-Ro roared and rammed his twin with all his might so that Du-Ke flew across the room backwards and smashed into the wall.  
“STOP!” Thomas yelled and jumped up. All four masks, including Lo-Go, who was returning from the kitchen, froze in midair. “Don’t forget whose house this is! Thank goodness I don’t have to go to work tomorrow!..” For some seconds he was breathing through clenched teeth, overwhelmed with the sudden company.  
The first one to move was Anx-Vi, who hovered at Thomas’s face level.  
“I’m sorry,” he stated, looking to the side. “Those twins… I remember that they were such even before…”  
“It’s not your fault, Anx-Vi,” Thomas stated. “You arrived so suddenly and – and there are too many of you. Gonna get used to you… what are you doing?”  
Indeed, Anx-Vi was behaving strangely: he pressed himself to Thomas’s chest. Something told the man that it was the best hug that the mask could manage (if, of course, he wasn’t going to eat his soul… and it seemed unlikely), so Thomas reacted with placing his hands on his back. Some seconds later Anx-Vi shifted and whimpered again, just like at the very moment when he had come alive.  
“A living heart,” he muttered. “I haven’t appreciated having one.”  
Thomas looked to the side, for now he was overwhelmed with a growing feeling of guilt. Indeed, what was it like to have a face only? Of course, soaring around was some kind of advantage, but still… Then he recalled a videogame he used to play as a child.  
“Wait, can’t you, erm, form yourself a body if you miss having it so much?”  
“What do you mean by that?” Anx-Vi wondered, looking up.  
“I mean… well… in some legends spirits were able to make bodies for themselves out of rocks or ice.” Thomas decided to miss the source out. “Maybe you can do so as well.”  
“Alas, we are incapable of moving things with mind power,” Lo-Go pointed out. “What is the word for it in your language?”  
“Telekinesis.”  
“Te-le-ki-ne-sis,” Lo-Go repeated and muttered the word to himself several times to memorize it. “As far as I know, the only thing we’re able to raise in the air is ourselves, and no more. No talking about something as heavy as a rock.”  
“Are you sure?” Cre-Ro asked. “It seems like a reasonable idea to me. Maybe it’s like physical training – developing those mind powers… Sure those who created the transportation of souls to masks considered such option, for we would be totally helpless otherwise.”  
“Yeeeeeeah! Can’t wait to toss you around without touching you!” Du-Ke giggled.  
“It won’t happen because you never had enough patience to learn anything,” Cre-Ro cut off.  
Before Thomas could imagine what could’ve taken place if someone like Du-Ke (his chaotic nature was showing itself every moment possible) possessed telekinesis, the chest rumbled, and a cloud of black dust soared out. This time it was the mask the left half of which was covered in snake skin. Moreover, its eyes were different: just like its mates’, they resembled tiny smoldering coals, but the left one was much brighter than the right one. Its chin resembled Anx-Vi’s, but was not as pointy, and the top of it was rounded and had a prominent line separating it from the rest of the ‘face’ (Thomas thought of a bowl hat upon the first look). As about the colors, it was mostly black with a yellow stripe where the ‘hat’s ribbon’ was, to say nothing of the green snake skin.  
The mask shook the remaining soot off itself and looked down, attempting to examine itself.  
“Perfect. I knew that everything would go just peachy,” it (no, he) stated, voice soaking with sarcasm.  
Anx-Vi got out of Thomas’s hands and hovered over his shoulder, eyebrows knitted together.  
“So, even now you’ve got a snake face, right?” Cre-Ro parried. “Once a freak, always a freak.”  
“Freaks no geeks,” the new mask replied. “Besides, there’s no one to protect you, for I’ve shut him down forever…”  
Another rumble made him roll his eyes: it was the last mask, which appeared to be of the happiest color possible. It was azure, with an M-shaped top (so much for cat ears, Thomas thought) and light brown fur over its forehead. The eyes were rectangular with rounded angles, like Lo-Go’s, and there were white horizontal short stripes under them.  
“Having a meeting without me?” the last mask chuckled. “Yes, it did work! We’re all together now once again!”  
“Awesome news,” the mask with snake skin muttered. “Don’t tell me your new name is as dumb as your previous one.”  
“Wait, you remember his previous name?” Du-Ke asked.  
“No, but I do remember it was dumb.”  
“Mo-Pat!” the azure mask exclaimed. “This is me!”  
“Mo-Pat? Great. Not as sweet as Ja-De.”  
“Ja-De?” Thomas parroted: now this was a twisted turn. “Ja-De. Jade. There’s a gem called jade.”  
“Told you,” Ja-De smirked at Mo-Pat, but the latter was not bothered by it at all.  
Thomas sighed, face buried in his hands. Six more inhabitants of the house. Six! Six responsive, understanding (almost) and completely different inhabitants!.. Thank goodness they don’t have to eat, he thought to himself, hoping that none of the newly awakened masks was telepathic.   
“Get away, get away, can’t you see you’re making it hard to breathe for him?” Mo-Pat pushed his mates to the sides, having turned serious out of sudden. “Listen, if you’re feeling bad, we can go back to sleep and leave you alone.”  
“You don’t have to,” Thomas replied, not looking at them. “Right. Let’s just set some rules, okay? This is my house, and I don’t want it to be in ruins when I return from work! Rule 1: no yelling, especially when I’m out! My neighbors know I live on my own, and I don’t want them to gossip behind my back. When I’m home, they may think it’s TV, but still…”  
“What’s a TV?” Cre-Ro asked.  
“And that is rule 2: if you’re asking questions, please be so patient and ask them in turn! I know that this is brave new world for you, but I think it’s going to become clear to you faster if I explain it to you step by step.”  
“Does that mean I have to wait until my dumb brother asks everything he wants?” Du-Ke whined.  
“We could establish an order,” Lo-Go suggested.  
“Rule 3: no tossing my things around! Some of them are fragile.” Thomas pinched on the bridge of his nose. “And… if you want to practice telekinesis, Cre-Ro…”  
“If it even exists,” Anx-Vi interfered.  
“…I’ll think about a way of doing it so no one and nothing gets damaged.”  
“Phee! I think that damage is what makes life interesting!” Du-Ke snorted. “If it doesn’t happen to me, of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think about the alternative names for the Masks?


	3. How Do People Leave Their Kids Alone?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The masks were left on their own for the first time, and Thomas has to deal with the results (even though it could've been worse).

The nasty thoughts like ‘I shouldn’t have left them on their own’ were plaguing Thomas’s mind on his way home. The rehearsal had been just fine, even though he could hardly understand what was going on. Thankfully, the group dance could hide the flaws… or it could not… Thomas stopped and rubbed his cheek (his hand turned orange: the trial makeup for the role of Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat hadn’t been washed off properly – another evidence that Thomas was beside himself).  
“How do people leave their kids alone?” he asked aloud. “And those are not kids. Well, they are in terms of understanding the reality of this world, but they’re adults. Or they sound like ones…”  
After finally getting home Thomas was taken aback that nothing could be heard from the outside. His worst fear had been that the masks could’ve thrown a party… or something else…  
“Begone!” Thomas ordered his mind and opened the door.  
“Who are you talking to?” Du-Ke was the first to meet him, soaring over his head. “Have you ordered ME to be gone?”  
“Not you,” Thomas muttered.   
“Thank goodness.” The mask with green stripes released a relaxed sigh (or what sounded like it). “Begone! Begone! Begone! I’ve heard it many times even when I had a living heart like yours. So what if I just wanted to have some fun? Begone!”  
“Sorry, Du-Ke, but maybe we’ll talk about it later? I don’t think it’s going to bring me or you anywhere right now… Where’s everyone?”  
“My boneheaded brother and Lo-Go are up there.” Du-Ke pointed at the staircase with his eyes. “Gee, Lo-Go should’ve really put him into a mask with a bone on the forehead, now that would be fitting… Mo-Pat is stuck in the kitchen and Anx-Vi with Ja-De got interested in those shiny things that keep music.”  
“You mean CDs?”  
“Whatever… Why is your face painted? Are there rituals in this world?”  
“There are, but they’re definitely different from those which you used to know.” This was one of the few things Thomas was absolutely certain about now. “It’s just the theater makeup. Trial one.”  
The kitchen appeared to be in perfectly fine order, except for all closets being open – Mo-Pat was hovering in front of one of them, examining the pans stacked inside.  
“So many ingredients! So many tools!” he exclaimed, having heard the steps. “Wish I could try them out!.. Oh,” he interrupted himself upon spotting that Thomas was not in the right mood. “What’s wrong, kiddo? You’re shaken.”  
Thomas flopped onto the high chair and massaged his temples.  
“I’m getting used, I’m getting used, I’m getting used…” The remains of thoughts that had plagued him the previous night were still there, particularly the attempt to imagine what it was like to have a face only and what could be done with it. “What am I even doing? My problems are nothing compared to someone else’s. I’m just overreacting.”  
“Sure you’re not!” Mo-Pat closed all the doors and then ‘stood’ on the counter in from of him. “I don’t think that your problems are insignificant. And you know what? I hate it when they are compared! Everyone’s problems matter!”  
“And what good have this approach done to you?” Du-Ke put in.  
“It still can make someone else feel better,” Mo-Pat parried.   
“Pff, you’re hopeless.”  
After having a snack (Thomas couldn’t eat a morsel: his throat clenched shut even though his brain understood that he had to eat something) Thomas approached to his room to see what the rest of the masks were up to. Lo-Go appeared to be reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes volume (it was a riddle how he had managed to get this particularly heavy book off the shelf without having made the rest tumble to the floor), and Cre-Ro was soaring at his side.  
“Try again,” Lo-Go pointed out. Cre-Ro visibly tensed so that his feathers bristled up. “Have I told you that you have to be relaxed?”  
“What are you two doing?” Thomas asked, entering.  
“Testing Cre-Ro’s theory,” Lo-Go replied. “You banned us from touching your things, but these books of yours seemed fitting. I mean, Cre-Ro thinks that we are able to use telekinesis, and what is lighter than book pages? Turning them over is a harmless motion.”  
“It worked!” Cre-Ro whined. “Just a couple of minutes ago I managed to turn a page without touching it!”  
“Maybe it was just a gust of the wind?” Du-Ke sneered, glancing at the hardly opened window. And yelped after Cre-Ro darted to him with a thunderous “YOU’RE SO DEAD AGAIN!!!” – in some moments the ‘head fight’ was in its peak.  
Thomas only shook his head. The progress was definitely there, even though so small… He went to the room where his music collection was to check Anx-Vi and Ja-De out and almost regretted it at first, for he hardly avoided stepping on one of the CD boxes. Those were covering almost the whole floor, even though the fringed mask and the snake-faced one were frantically trying to stack them neatly again, carrying them around in their mouths.  
“I should’ve guessed that actually trying to do things with your nose and mouth is not as funny as during stupid party games,” Thomas said aloud. Anx-Vi froze, having dropped another CD box, while Ja-De soared upwards and arched his eyebrow:  
“I don’t know what party games are, but it is indeed not funny.”  
“I’m sorry!” Anx-Vi babbled and went on in the same breath: “The song you turned on for me last night was so impressive that I wanted to listen to more and I found these things but I didn’t know how to make them sound and…”  
“Anx-Vi,” Thomas sighed, praying that he would not suffer from headache tonight. “I’m not blaming you for anything. You have to learn a lot about this world, and you did what you thought was logical.”  
“And you have no logic at all. Lo-Go possessed it when transferring you into a mask,” Ja-De nudged him with his chin.  
“One more such statement, and I’ll lock you in the chest and refuse to let you out,” Thomas threatened. “Or should tearing your snake skin off be more efficient?..”  
Ja-De gave Thomas a black look, but said nothing and left the room. Anx-Vi glanced to the side uneasily:  
“Thank you.”   
“No problem. I guess he was a jerk and remained one,” Thomas shrugged, crouching down to collect the CD boxes thrown around.  
“He’s beginning to trust you,” Anx-Vi informed. “He told the truth. I remember that he always lied to strangers and began telling them the truth only after knowing them a little better.”  
“Maybe it’s his way of defense?” Thomas supposed.  
“I never thought about it this way.” Anx-Vi clumsily took one of the boxes in his mouth and placed it onto the top of the newly forming stack. “But… will you turn more songs on for me? And explain how these things keep the music? I still doubt that it’s not magic.”  
“There’s a saying that any technology advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic. Who knows what I would’ve thought if I was transported many years into the future… All right. Tonight we’re watching The Mask. All of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Du-Ke's remark about the 'mask with a bone on the forehead' is a reference to Uka Uka, the evil mask from the Crash Bandicoot videogame series.


	4. Most Peculiar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After watching The Mask both Thomas and his new 'roommates' have new things to think about.

All six masks were fascinated by the movie, although they demanded explanations almost all the way. And each of them was referring to a different matter. Lo-Go was interested in the places and devices shown, Ja-De wondered why the main character ‘was so naïve that he could not trick everybody without being helped’, Du-Ke was asking why the Mask’s shenanigans ‘were so innocent’ (and he let out a howl of disappointment when Thomas told him that the movie had been planned as a horror one at first), Cre-Ro was curious about the dancing and clothing styles shown and Mo-Pat’s attention was glued to the main character’s dog. Only Anx-Vi was quietly soaring above the couch, not daring to say a word, although his eyes never left the screen.  
Thomas’s head was buzzing like a hive of angry bees when the final credits started.   
“If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself,” he hummed and leaned onto the back of the couch. And then it reached him. “You haven’t asked a single question, Anx-Vi. Why so? Don’t be shy.”  
“I’m not shy,” Anx-Vi muttered. “I don’t want to overwhelm you. Besides, everybody is asking different questions, and even though I have no ears now, I can hear everything perfectly well.”  
The masks grew silent, and the first to approach to Anx-Vi was Mo-Pat:  
“I do feel that you’re interested in something none of us has asked. Thomas, do you mind if our youngest asks his own question?”  
“I don’t mind,” Thomas stated, and it was true.  
Anx-Vi glanced to the side and spoke louder at last:  
“Loki.”  
His five mates stared at him with dumbfounded expressions (Du-Ke’s was the most puzzled). Anx-Vi sighed, but Lo-Go was quick to catch up:  
“Ah! You mean the god whom this mask was claimed to depict?” Anx-Vi nodded. “That’s an interesting issue.”  
“Yes,” Anx-Vi approved. “I don’t understand. It was stated that this Loki was an evil god, a creature of the night, a trickster, but he kind of… helped the main character. Why so?”  
“Perhaps Loki liked him and decided that it would be fair. Bad guys have their motivations as well as good guys,” Thomas shrugged. “And he wasn’t the main bad guy of the story.”  
“Ye-e-eah!” Cre-Ro laughed nervously. “Betrayal is much worse than making a bunch of people dance!” He soared up and imitated some kind of dance with somersaults and shaking.  
“And one more thing. Lo-Go?” Anx-Vi turned to his pal.  
“Hmm?”  
“What do you think would happen if Thomas agreed to wear… one of us? Would he become someone… someone like shown there?”  
Now that was a very good question. Thomas was certain that movies (and not only them) tended to exaggerate effects and consequences, but nevertheless they were based on facts and beliefs.   
“I’m afraid I cannot be certain about the effects, for I have not experienced them,” Lo-Go admitted.  
“WHAT?!” Du-Ke shot out. “You managed to transfer our souls into masks, but you’ve never worn one?! How’s that possible? I thought that masks were for wearing first of all! Great spirits, if I were you, I would’ve worn them all at once!”  
“That’s because I have observed all rules,” Lo-Go stated frigidly. “The shaman’s will has to be strong enough to cope with the soul locked in the mask if it decides to break out or simply goes stark raving mad. The souls transferred to masks are usually kept asleep so the shaman can set them right while wearing them for the first time to avoid shock as much as possible. In addition, if the soul breaks out, the shaman should be able to get it back.”  
“I don’t think that breaking out is the best option for the soul,” Ja-De mused.  
“It certainly is not,” Lo-Go approved. “I’ve seen it only once. The poor soul was unable to find itself a place, and it had the most unsatisfying fit of sadness, trust me.”  
“You mean the soul was stuck between the worlds?” Thomas pointed out.  
“This is a somehow correct statement.” Lo-Go cleared his inexistent throat and continued: “The broken mask should not be used, therefore the new one is to be made with addition of a fraction of the deceased one. Usually it’s a lock of hair or a few droplets of blood. Now do you understand why it is important to be able to tame souls BEFORE wearing the masks, Du-Ke?”  
“Let’s return to the effects,” Thomas suggested, feeling the danger of possible argument. “They may be positive as well, right? Like protection or something?”  
“Perhaps there can be even more than protection… Wait. Are you implying that you want to try out what may take place?”  
“Stanley Ipkiss did wear the mask without knowing its effects.”  
Lo-Go hovered for some more moments before slowly descending into Thomas’s hands:  
“All right. I agree that we should try it out. I’ll do my best to stay in control of myself.”  
Other masks sneakily exchanged glances, and Thomas, having exhaled to calm down, turned Lo-Go around and moved him to his face, expecting something monstrous. Even though his mind was telling him that it was a logical decision, his heart was pounding worse than a blacksmith’s hammer, and a nasty idea that his soul was going to be eaten (or doomed at least) was crawling somewhere in the back of his brain.  
And the transformation or something did take place, for as soon as Lo-Go’s reverse side touched Thomas’s face, the feeling that appeared was as if the mask melted and was absorbed like particularly surreal cream. When the man could see again (and he didn’t realize when his sight was gone for some moments), the first thing he noticed was that he could see clearly – there were no signs of the mask’s eye hole edges. Secondly, he couldn’t feel anything on his face at all, as if he hadn’t put Lo-Go on. Thirdly, the room looked as if an inexistent blue light was turned on, for everything gained bluish shades, and there was some kind of faint indigo shimmer surrounding him.  
“Most peculiar.”  
Thomas’s hands flew to his mouth which seemingly had worked by itself. No. It was Lo-Go. So now I literally have two souls in one body, the man decided.  
“E-erm… Lo-Go…” Mo-Pat feebly began, “are you there?”  
“Of course I am.”  
“One more thing to get used to,” Thomas stated, imagining what it looked like on the outside: as if he was talking to himself. “Guys, is my head blue?”  
“Naaaaaah,” Du-Ke droned (if he had a tongue, he would’ve definitely lolled it out). “You look like you usually do. Rubbish! I would be more than happy to make your head green! Emerald green, a shade that is much richer than that garbage green in the movie!.. Hey brother, and you should’ve turned his head red!”  
“This idea has already been used,” Thomas commented, having recalled Red Skull from Marvel Comics. “Promise me one thing, okay? Don’t read my thoughts.”  
“I believe such opportunity was not considered,” Lo-Go replied. “Nobody sensible would’ve included it, thought I do understand your concern.”  
“There is a small difference,” Anx-Vi pointed out. “Your eyes. They are blue. Like painted blue.”  
“Not surprised,” Thomas replied and walked into the bathroom to look in the mirror. His reflection was not showing signs of anything supernatural… except for eyes, of course. They were unnaturally blue, as if badly colored in Photoshop. Even contact lenses would’ve been paler. Hope that the lens excuse will work if someone sees me like this, Thomas thought. Then his eyes switched to the shelf which needed to be repaired. “All right, just two screws at the distance of five inches from the edge, then a bit of plaster and… hoooooold on. Lo-Go? Is that you?”  
“I thought you knew better what to do to repair it,” Lo-Go replied.  
“I don’t think about angles and calculations so much when repairing stuff,” Thomas objected. “I guess you were thinking in the same way when pulling that Sherlock Holmes volume from the shelf, right?”  
“Of course. Pressing on the top for its higher end to poke out at the required angle, then pushing from the bottom…”  
“Okay, okay, got it.” Another thought occurred to Thomas. “Listen, Lo-Go, maybe you could help our stage technician? One of them complained that the scenery moving mechanism was malfunctioning, and no one could determine what the matter was.”  
“Perhaps I could help if you let me see,” Lo-Go stated.  
“Fine. Tomorrow I’m taking you with me, but promise not to talk in others’ presence.”  
“Definitely.”


	5. I Didn't Know There Were More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lo-Go helps Thomas solve one of the problems at the theater, but creates some more along the way. Later Thomas accidentally discovers something fishy during the talk with his friend.

“Try again now, Vee!”  
Vee carefully pulled the required rope to test if the lifting mechanism was working now. This time it moved smoothly, not being hindered by anything.  
“And what was the reason, I wonder?” he asked when Thomas climbed off the ladder.  
“The rope was stuck in one of the wheels,” Thomas replied. “It’s going to work for a while, but I think it needs to be replaced. Its edge is worn, this is why the rope may jump off again.”  
“I don’t know how you found the flaw so quickly, but I’ll take your words as true,” Vee pointed out. “Still I’ll check it out later. Come along. Everyone’s stark raving mad because you’re stuck here helping me.”  
“I said it once and I’ll say it once again, Vee: everyone’s important. Some people just don’t get it.” Thomas couldn’t confess even to himself that he said it mostly to distract Vee, for he knew that this stage technician tended to stay invisible to most, but could see and hear everything. Thank goodness Vee was clever enough not to blab it all around.  
However, today’s rehearsal did not go as efficiently as fixing the mechanism. More specifically, it went on just fine until Thomas’s part. At first it seemed fine, for this time he managed to perform the dance flawlessly, but as about the singing part… well, he was never satisfied with his singing to the end, but this time it was worse than ever. No, he did not sing out of tune, the reason was much worse.  
“Sanders! What’s up with you today? Don’t tell me that you haven’t been sleeping all night again!”  
“I have,” Thomas dryly replied, not knowing who was speaking: Lo-Go who was still on his face (he had planned to take Lo-Go off before the rehearsal, but hadn’t managed to do so) or himself.   
“Can’t deny that your dance was technically perfect this time. The rhythm was observed without a hitch, but… honestly, you’re dancing like a wooden puppet today! Where’s your soul?”  
“One thing I know is that I haven’t sold it to the devil.” Thomas decided to laugh it off, but that appeared to be not the best decision: the director, Mr. Romulus, only frowned at him. Thomas wasn’t blaming him.  
“I’ve always appreciated that you act sincerely and sing with your soul, Sanders. Everybody has bad days, but do your best not to repeat them, right?”  
“Duly noted.”  
“Fine. Don’t forget that the premiere is coming.”  
After the rehearsal was over, Thomas practically ran into the bathroom despite being practically blind: the red contact lenses he was wearing to hide the blue color of his eyes were starting to get unbearable. At first his eyes were itching, then started dripping, so it was more than relief to finally get the lenses out. Art demands sacrifices, Thomas thought, having finally detached Lo-Go from his face.  
For some seconds the man was leaning on the sink and heavily breathing.   
“I guess you kept me rhythmic,” he murmured, flexing his fingers around the sink’s edges.  
“Rhythm is all I understand about music,” Lo-Go replied. “I apologize for keeping your emotions in. I guess that happened because I’ve always tended to use my head first of all.”  
“Ah, it’s fine, Lo-Go. Thanks for helping me with the moving mechanism.”  
“My pleasure.”  
“Now get here. I’m not planning to wear you today anymore.” Thomas hid Lo-Go under his jacket and walked to the artist’s room with the most casual expression on his face, which was not easy, for his eyes were still on fire. Having waited until everyone left (he pretended to be fixing his shoe; it indeed needed to be fixed), he placed Lo-Go onto the chair and set off to collecting his belongings.  
“Really Thomas, what happened? I mean, King Creativity was worried about you. I hope nothing bad has taken place.”  
That’s all I needed, Thomas thought, glancing at the person carrying the Bustopher Jones costume. It was his best friend Joan, whom Thomas was usually glad to see, but now all he wanted was going home without any more collisions.  
“It’s all fine, Joan, thank goodness. Maybe I’m just having a seasonal breakdown,” he sighed.  
“Shouldn’t last too long. I know you. You put all of yourself into singing, and I know you’ll make King Creativity fall off his chair next time… Wow! Is that an African mask?”  
“Ye-es,” Thomas replied, cursing himself for not putting Lo-Go into his bag earlier.   
“May I have a look?”  
“Of course.”  
Lo-Go had more sense than to show his true nature: he remained motionless while Joan was twirling him in their hands. Moreover, he did not react when being mockingly placed in front of their face.  
“Have you bought it during that antique shop sale?”  
“Yeah, it was in a mystery chest.”   
“Interesting… I didn’t know there were more. Why did you take it here?”  
“Wanted to combine it with African costumes in the collection,” Thomas lied and knitted his eyebrows together in concern. “Wait, Joan, did you say more?”  
“I bought a mystery chest too at that sale, and it contained a similar mask,” Joan replied. “Bet they were made by the same person or at least at the same place. Black, with grey patterns and adorned with pieces of leather.”  
“And?”  
“I don’t know how to explain,” Joan confessed. “I tried to wear it, obviously, but nothing seemed to happen. But at that night I had a strangest dream, as if this mask came alive! It stated that its name was Dor-Me and asked me where the rest were!”  
Thomas heard the tiniest rustle: Lo-Go was keeping his metaphorical ears open.  
“And what else did it say?”  
“It complained that it wanted a body. And stated that there was a way to get it! Eesh! I’m feeling like a horror movie character! Locked it in the chest for good.”  
“Mine wasn’t giving me any scary dreams,” Thomas replied, and this time he told the truth. “I wonder if there are more of them?..”  
“I’ve heard that those voodoo things only affect those who believe in them,” Joan informed. “So I’ll do my best to think it’s just a dream, nothing more.”  
“Yeah, though I think it was hoodoo, not voodoo…” Thomas muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who?
> 
> References:  
> 1) Vee is the reference to Virgil in Can LYING Be Good?? where he acted as a stage technician.  
> 2) Mr. Romulus ('King Creativity') is a reference to the fan character of the same name (a fusion of Roman and Remus and the embodiment of creativity as a whole).


	6. Now That Is Cool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The abilities of another mask are found out.

Lo-Go soared out of Thomas’s bag as soon as it was open again and started circling the room, constantly muttering something to himself.  
“How was the rehearsal?” Cre-Ro asked, descending from the second floor.  
“Could be better,” Thomas replied. “But at least we’ve got news, and I don’t know if they are good or bad.”  
“I see,” Cre-Ro stated, watching Lo-Go who was on his twenty-something circle. “I remember that he used to do so when he had legs. Thinking about something really really really important – or what he thought was so.”  
“Though he mostly did it when worrying over trifles,” Du-Ke added, appearing from behind the TV.  
“FALSEHOOD!” Lo-Go roared, having made Thomas jump and the twins turn upside down in the air. “This time it’s NOT a trifle! I’m trying to understand who that was, for the secret of transferring souls into masks was severely guarded for generations!”  
The twins turned towards each other, and their eyes simultaneously widened.  
“You mean you’ve seen another soul in a mask?” Cre-Ro asked.  
“I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard about it.”  
“My friend Joan states that they purchased a chest with a mask as well,” Thomas explained. “Then they stated that they dreamed about this mask being alive.”  
“That’s just it! I can’t remember using a mask decorated with leather!” Lo-Go stated. “I do remember transferring all of our souls into masks, but nothing more.”  
“Let me stop you right there! Who transferred YOU?”  
Lo-Go froze in midair and replied after some moments of hesitation:  
“Me. I-it was not a suicide, mind you, I did it merely to keep the secret of soul transfer on my part. All that the murderers received was my useless body and a bunch of masks covered in soot.”  
Now this was news that Thomas didn’t know how to react to: the acts of bravery for beliefs or keeping secrets always left him with mixed emotions. Cre-Ro and Du-Ke were speechless as well, so the room stayed silent until the appearance of the fifth person – Anx-Vi wearing unplugged headphones.  
“What’s the hubbub about?” he asked and frowned when the headband fell over his eyes.  
Thomas briefly told him everything from beginning to end. Meanwhile Lo-Go went on soaring from side to side, but slower this time, and the twins, not knowing what to do, continued listening to their ‘keeper’.  
“Dor-Me? Not even remotely familiar,” Anx-Vi confessed. “I don’t remember my previous name, but I know one thing: my new one has something in common with it. So should the rest. Dor-Me, Dor-Me… no. Doesn’t ring any bells.”  
“Perhaps this one survived and their soul was transferred into the mask later,” Cre-Ro supposed. “It should be so if Lo-Go does not remember such mask being made.”  
“You’re so clever, just like Captain Obvious,” Du-Ke giggled and received a headbutt from his brother, but paid no heed to it because one thing just reached his consciousness. “Getting a new body? They said it was possible? And you told us nothing, Lo-Go?”  
“I didn’t know it was possible, and nobody states it is,” Lo-Go objected. “It could’ve been the next stage of my studies.”  
“The logical conclusion is that if the process of transferring the soul into a mask is a secret, then the way to form a new body for this soul should be top secret,” Anx-Vi put in. “Do you think we should talk to this Dor-Me?”  
“I could ask Joan to bring this mask to the theater, but I don’t think I would be able to talk to it one on one,” Thomas replied. “In addition, Joan or someone else of the troop may suspect something. I mean, they know I’m a piece of work, but this could be too much.”  
“So you need to hide,” Du-Ke added. “Wait a bit. Lo-Go made you a walking computer, so why can’t one of us hide you?”  
For the one from distant past you’re a pretty quick learner, Thomas thought.  
“And I can’t see the reason why it can’t be Anx-Vi,” Du-Ke went on. “Mo-Pat is too bouncy, my brother is too posh, I am too loud, Ja-De… right, Ja-De could be the one able to hide too, but I still think you need Anx-Vi.”  
“Nobody asked if I needed it.” Anx-Vi shook the headphones off onto the table. “Though you’re right. I’ve always been invisible. I mean, nobody ever saw me enter and they thought that I appear like a spirit!” His tone was odd when he was saying it: it seemed that he was proud of this ability of his, but sadness – accepted sadness – was there as well.  
Thomas pondered over the situation once more. Asking Joan to bring the mask to work was clearly not an option (it could be only in a bad comedy). Asking him to bring it here? Hardly possible. If the brought mask goes missing, they will notice… and the possible racket that would definitely be caused would be noticed too (Thomas recalled the scene from the beginning of the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets while thinking about this). No, no and no. That meant that Du-Ke’s suggestion could make sense.  
“Do you mind trying, Anx-Vi?” Thomas asked. “Because I can’t see any other options.”  
“I do not.”  
The sensation when Thomas brought Anx-Vi to his face was almost the same with the one which had appeared when he had put Lo-Go on, except for one thing: for a moment he thought that he was in free fall. Or no. He more of collapsed back into his body when the process was over.  
“Now that is cool,” Du-Ke smirked, staring at Thomas’s feet. The man lowered his eyes, expecting seeing that weird shimmer around himself again – and indeed he saw it. The purple sparkling mist was swirling around his hands, arms, chest and legs above the knees, but his ankles and feet appeared to be see-through, though he could feel them. Thomas held his breath and made a step, expecting something monstrous to take place – and was pleasantly surprised to see that they got visible again. But why? Wait, wait…  
“Shadows.” Cre-Ro answered the question before it could even be formed. “Try walking into the shadow again.”  
Thomas held himself from snapping at him (now he agreed with Du-Ke that Cre-Ro was Captain Obvious), but did as told, stepping onto the shadow casted by the couch. This time it absorbed him completely, for the purple shimmer was gone, and Thomas could barely make the outline of his hand out. Harry Potter much, he thought. Talk of the devil… That seemed much better than the Invisibility Cloak, but it meant depending on shadows. Right… After a bit of experimenting Thomas made sure that any body part touching the lit surface would become visible (Du-Ke cracked up when he crouched and placed his hands onto the lit floor while his knees remained on the shadowed part of the floor; not the best sight, the man thought to himself, imagining what it might look like – only top half visible).  
The side effect was not slow in coming. After about five or six tries, all of which showed that the most reliable way to hide was standing on the shaded surface was the best way to become completely invisible, a very familiar voice spoke in Thomas’s mind.  
“What if you stay in the shadows forever?”  
“Anx-Vi, stop it,” Thomas said aloud.  
“Stop what?”  
Getting used to using one mouth for two speakers, Thomas thought.  
“You asked me about staying in the shadows forever.”  
“I did not, I was quiet.”  
“He did not,” Lo-Go approved. “I didn’t hear anything.”  
Excellent. Anx-Vi. Anx-Vi-e-ty. Doing his best to pay as little attention to the worries drilling his mind as possible, Thomas went on experimenting. The shadows appeared to make him fleshless as well, for when he tried to take a cup when being completely submerged, his hand slipped through it. But then a new danger appeared: he found out that it was not complete invisibility. It was turning into your own shadow, and the attempt with the cup proved it. No staying against lit walls, Thomas noted. What about sounds?  
“Lo-Go?” Thomas asked, having stepped onto the lit patch of the floor and turned visible again.  
“Yes?”  
“I’m going to walk into the shadows again and say something. Tell me if you can hear me, okay?”  
“Right.”  
This one proved that shadows couldn’t speak, which was a good sign. Lo-Go stated that he couldn’t hear a word while Thomas was in the ‘shadow condition’. This referred to other sounds as well, although Thomas could hear himself pretty well; Anx-Vi approved that he could hear him too. But if they couldn’t be heard ‘from the outside’, it was fine.  
“I told you that Anx-Vi knows how to hide,” Du-Ke chuckled when Thomas took Anx-Vi off to catch his breath (by this moment his heart was about to rip him open). “Hey, why so anxious?”  
“Wish you could try it,” Thomas parried. “So, are we really gonna do this? Go on a heist without taking anything?”  
“I guess so.” Anx-Vi’s tone was such as if he was shrugging. “If Lo-Go states that it is highly important, it is most probably so. I know Lo-Go. He gets this worried only if something equal to the moon falling from the sky is going to happen.”  
“Right, convinced. Can you promise that you’ll try not to give me chills?.. Here goes nothing.”


	7. So It's True

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas has a talk with the seventh mask.

It appeared that Thomas could not go through the walls, but the hardly opened window of Joan’s house was enough, for he reached out to one of the shadows on the inner side of the wall and in a second was pulled in. Silence was pressing his ears, and Thomas took several deep breaths to calm down, though his heart was leaping in his boots. Emotionless Lo-Go and too emotional Anx-Vi. Which option’s worse? – he thought, hoping that Anx-Vi was not reading his thoughts.  
After a brief search the chest appeared to be under the coffee table. Locked, of course. Locked it in the chest for good, wasn’t that what Joan had stated?  
“Wait,” Anx-Vi whispered when Thomas set off to searching for the key. “I think there’s a way to open it without a key.”  
“Let’s hear it.”  
“Try interacting with its shadow. You haven’t tried this at home, but I think that it’s possible. I mean, if you interact with the item, its shadow changes correspondingly. Why can’t it be used vice versa?”  
“Erm…”  
“I know it sounds unreliable, but I’ve heard about such way. I know a thing or two about shadows.”  
Having decided not to ask where he had learned ‘a thing or two’, Thomas stepped out of the darkness to calm down, for the feeling of dismay was not leaving him, and almost immediately collapsed (for some reason he thought about the moment from Mulan, when the soldiers were trying to get the arrow off a wooden pole, holding stone discs all the while). Thankfully the carpet muffled the sound of his fall.  
For some seconds Thomas was motionlessly lying both to get used to being corporeal again and to hear if Joan was awake. Having considered that the results on both options were satisfactory, he stood up and lifted the chest to place it onto the table. It was not as heavy as that in which his six masks had arrived, and, judging by the sounds, it indeed contained only one mask. Then he entered the shadows again.  
The manipulation with the chest’s shadow did work, and performing it was much easier than explaining it (Anx-Vi commented that the chest’s shadow had no visible lock and therefore could be opened without bare hands). And yes, the mask inside was pretty similar to his new roommates. It was almost the same in size and just as Joan had described it: black, with grey stripes on the forehead, cheeks and chin, grey huge circles around the eyes and edges adorned with pieces of black leather.   
Having noticed that the mask’s eyes lit up, Thomas returned to reality and quickly hid in the shadows again together with it.  
“Clever,” it commented with a wide smug smile. “Very clever. Shadows don’t talk, so no one will hear us.”  
“So it’s true,” Thomas stated, his breathing beginning to hitch, and he didn’t know if it was Anx-Vi’s influence or his own nerves.  
“Yeah, yeah, tots. I was going to set off to find the others, but they found me! Isn’t that funny?”  
“No fun, Dor-Me,” Thomas replied. For a brief moment the mask couldn’t hide being surprised after being called by his name, but the cheeky expression quickly returned. “You’d better tell me what you meant by wanting a body. Don’t you dare possess my friend!”  
“Still you allowed a poor little anxious creature stick to you!” Dor-Me snapped. “And for you to know, possession is physically impossible. A soul can possess only one body at once, and it doesn’t matter if it is flesh or wood.”  
“How do you know?”  
Dor-Me glanced to the side:  
“Guess there’s no sense hiding the truth now. I know who is aiding you, and he’s not easy when it comes to trust. It means you’re not going to sing about it on every corner… though if you do, your mouth with explode!”  
“Less words, more action!”  
“All right. I was the mask maker. And a pretty gifted one, I’d say. Someone has to make them, right? I was even going to be trusted with the secret of creating a new body for the souls locked in masks!..”  
“But you don’t remember it,” Anx-Vi interfered.  
“I didn’t get to knowing it,” Dor-Me objected. “Such knowledge should not be spoken, so I was never told about it. However, I do remember another thing. I’ve heard – accidentally! – that in order to keep the sacred information secret, it was entrusted to masks, part of it to each one.”  
“Wait, Dor-Me. Does that mean it was written on them?” Thomas clarified.  
“Guess so, but a special kind of writing was used to do so,” Dor-Me replied. “I remember carving sets on symbols on the masks, but I had no idea what they meant. But the student of our shaman, the stoic one, should know it, if you’re so curious.”  
“How many sets of symbols there were?”  
“I do remember that there were six. Every six masks the cycle repeated itself… I’m not included now. I remember that I didn’t get to finish the mask I am in now. The symbols were the last thing to be applied according to the rules, though it would be more logical to add them in the process.”  
Thomas felt his mouth curve into a smile of easement, and he didn’t know if it was his own or Anx-Vi’s reaction.   
“All right. Thank you for the information, Dor-Me… Can you promise me one thing?”  
“Which?”  
“Don’t you scare Joan like that again.”  
“Oh please,” Dor-Me sighed. “As if I had a chance to talk to someone in a different way. If you didn’t lose your pants after encountering several sentient masks, it doesn’t mean that someone else will be as strong-willed as you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dor-Me is the counterpart of Remy (Sleep) in this AU. Explanation: Sleep - Dormant - Dor-Me.


	8. It's Just a Theory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some riddle-solving!

Thomas’s sleep was blank, and he was surprised when he woke up the next morning. He had expected being tortured with nightmares after being shaken head to toe by Anx-Vi despite the last one did not wish to do it to him. Better than it could’ve been, Thomas thought.  
When he went downstairs, he realized that Anx-Vi must’ve told everything to his mates, for they all were participating in a discussion.  
“…then?”  
“If even you aren’t sure, then I don’t know.” This was Mo-Pat’s voice. “You’ve always been so confident about everything and had a clear opinion.”  
“Now I am trying to compare all the pros and cons,” Lo-Go replied. “Naturally, I would be happy to have a body again, but I do not know what it can be like.”  
“What do you mean by that?” Cre-Ro asked.  
“If we are able to speak the language of this new world, this means our appearance may adapt too.”  
“I would be happy to turn into something gross!” Du-Ke exclaimed, spinning in the air. “But at least able to stand on two legs!”  
“Guys…” Thomas began, entering. “I guess you’re talking about the yesterday’s news, right?”  
“Certainly,” Lo-Go stated. “Now we have figurative food for thought.”  
“And we wanted to ask you for help,” Anx-Vi confessed. “You’ve heard everything. If we all possess knowledge we crave without knowing it, can you help us get it?”  
“I swear we are not going to cause any harm to you,” Ja-De added.  
“I guess I have no choice. I’m the one who knows, so who else can help you guys?” Thomas said, and it was true, although his rational part was yelling in frustration. He didn’t know why, but an image of an animal shelter appeared in his mind. Maybe because it was about helping others, knowing you won’t get any material benefit from it. “If you just allow me examine you…”  
“No problem.” This was said by Ja-De, to everyone’s surprise. He slowly lowered himself into Thomas’s hands. “I know not everyone here likes me, so if some unknown forces awake and take me with them, it won’t be regretted.”  
“Nonsense,” Mo-Pat objected.  
Thomas began turning Ja-De this way and that, wondering what language these writings could be in. The yellow patterns were plain, as well as the dark patches, but then Thomas lifted the edge of snake skin covering Ja-De’s left half and spotted weird symbols carved into the wood underneath.  
“Does that hurt?” Thomas asked, carefully moving the snake skin to see more.  
“No, but I feel exposed, please be faster,” Ja-De complained.  
“Please write them all down, and I will read them out,” Lo-Go interfered.  
Thomas thoroughly copied the strange words carved in Ja-De’s surface and fixed the snake skin back where it belonged. The next one was Anx-Vi, and in his case the writings were hidden under his fringe. That mask maker sure had a sense of humour, Thomas thought: Du-Ke’s writing was under his tentacle moustache and Cre-Ro’s – behind the feathers on his top. In Mo-Pat’s case the hiding place was obvious: his part was on his reverse side, and Lo-Go’s part was under the fur on his forehead. After it was done, Lo-Go hovered over the notes, examining them.  
“All right, three of these describe the ingredients and three – the motions,” he announced. “The latter are clear, and as about the ingredients… they are not even mentioned directly.”  
“Don’t leave us hanging,” Mo-Pat interfered. Lo-Go glared at him and continued:  
“There are only three of them, but it doesn’t make it easier. Judge for yourselves: we need the evidence of life, the evidence of soul and the evidence of labor.”  
The masks began exchanging glances, not daring to ask about something else, for this was a great riddle for all of them. They all silently agreed that if someone as smart as Lo-Go could not crack it in ten seconds flat, then it was certainly something. Finally Ja-De spoke, his voice lacking its usual smoothness:  
“What about the motions?”  
“Nothing special,” Lo-Go assured. “Mixing, boiling, stirring… adding a bit of breath? Ah, I suppose it means blowing on it… I hope you will help me with that, Thomas.”  
“I told you that I would help, and so I will, as long as it does not require sacrifices,” Thomas replied.  
“Our tribe did not practice sacrificing,” Cre-Ro stated. “Anybody has any ideas? Because I’ve got none.”  
“It all reminds me of Harry Potter,” Thomas confessed. Having received six blank looks as a reply, he hurried to explain. “I promised that there will be a marathon of those movies, and books as well… This story is about a boy wizard who is famous in his world because he is the only one who survived after a deadly spell. Moreover, the evil wizard who tried to kill him was almost killed instead! As he said, he was less than a ghost, but still alive… Then, this evil wizard desired to gain a new body, and to do so he needed three mightiest magical elements – the bone of his father, the flesh of his servant and the blood of his enemy.”  
“Our magic was not black, for you to know,” Du-Ke stated, to everyone’s astonishment.  
“My brother is a foul-mouth, and an unruly foul-mouth in addition, but he’s not evil,” Cre-Ro approved. “The blood of his enemy seems to be the most merciful option, for he could get it without killing that enemy or – or wounding them severely.”  
“So, no one is supposed to be killed here, right?” Thomas summed up.  
“I guess so,” Lo-Go replied. “Wait, can’t blood be the evidence of life? There’s a belief that it contains the features of all natural elements, for it’s hot like fire, flowing like water, vital like air and supportive like earth. Besides, you’re right, Cre-Ro, it can be received without killing anybody or at least without a lot of damage.”  
“One ingredient down?” Anx-Vi asked hopefully.  
“It’s just a theory,” Lo-Go stated. “Wait until we figure out what the rest two are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a bit messy, sorry...  
> So, any ideas what the two remaining evidences are?


	9. Cre-Ro, You're a Riddle for Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thomas and Lo-Go do some research on the ingredients. Meanwhile, Cre-Ro keeps himself busy as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words of pain. I mean, I've set the key points out, but getting to them is HARD.

Lo-Go was present during all Thomas’s Internet research sessions, not getting tired of muttering comments – from ‘how is it all done?’ to ‘it’s like asking a large group of people’. Thomas agreed with the last statement, but still replied that he preferred respected sources. Nevertheless some of the articles were about rituals (from horrifying to neutral), some were describing fictional scenes, but finally Thomas found a phrase that put him on the alert. It was ‘Tears cleanse the soul’.  
“Can the second ingredient be tears?” he asked, having made Lo-Go snap out of his ‘questioning condition’.  
“Hmm, it might be,” Lo-Go agreed. “The evidence of soul. If tears do cleanse the soul, then…”  
“Happiness just a teardrop away,” Thomas muttered, having recalled Shrek 2.  
“Preposterous,” Lo-Go replied. “I am sure that this story about a boy who lived was based on actual traditions and rituals. Can you remind if there were any more described? They can give us more hints.”  
“The one I told you about was the most influencing,” Thomas replied, and then another thought struck him. “Wait. There was something about tears in Tales of Beedle the Bard… yes, yes. They were the proof of pain in The Fountain of Fair Fortune. But those were tears of frustration and despair. And also… hold on!” He quickly entered the tale’s name and found its summary. “Yes!”  
“What is this tale about?” Lo-Go asked.  
“It’s about three witches and a knight trying to get to the fountain which would grant fair fortune forever more once a year to one unfortunate person. Along the way they underwent challenges, and one was won with those very tears and another… wait-wait… yes, another required fruits of labour. It was sweat. So, can’t sweat be the third ingredient?”  
“It may be,” Lo-Go agreed. “I am almost sure it is. But there’s one thing that confuses me about the tears, for I guess they need to be sincere. Was the teardrop given for happiness sincere?”  
Had no idea I’ll have to become a pop culture expert due to some ancient voodoo masks, Thomas thought.  
“The first one was sincere, and the second… it was of physical pain.”  
“Our magic was very keen on feelings. We preferred that the animals we killed would die quickly and without being tortured, so that the spirits of those animals would not haunt us,” Lo-Go stated. “Should be similar here.”  
“So now I have to act as a source of three ingredients for you to gain human image again? Lovely.”

Thomas could only be jealous about Cre-Ro’s persistence. After he was caught in the kitchen with two sugar cubes floating in front of him it became clear that he was right all along: the masks did possess telekinetic powers regardless of them being extremely low for now. Since then Cre-Ro was turning himself inside out in attempts to develop this ability, unlike his mates. Anx-Vi, Mo-Pat and Ja-De preferred slower, but more material ways (like carrying things around in their mouths or on their backs: Thomas once saw Anx-Vi carry a box while being in almost horizontal position, face down), Lo-Go applied his scientific approach (as few movements as possible and achieving ‘satisfactory’ results) and Du-Ke openly stated that ‘he didn’t need to move things if there was someone else to move them’. However, even his twin’s mockery did not stop Cre-Ro.  
“Imagine how easy it could’ve been if you could move it with your mind,” he stated in the evening, when Mo-Pat was helping Thomas with the soup by cutting vegetables, holding the knife’s handle in his mouth. “I’m telling you, Mo-Pat, it IS possible!”  
“If it is, then give me the pepper grinder,” Thomas asked, considering that this was one of the safest options and remembering that Cre-Ro would not calm down at any price. Cre-Ro darted to the shelf and – oh dear, after some pants, huffs and puffs actually managed to raise the pepper grinder into the air and even make it soar halfway to the target, but then must’ve lost control, and the item would’ve fallen onto the floor if Thomas hadn’t caught it in midair. That was sensible enough of me not to entrust grinding to him, he thought.   
“Shame, shame, shame,” Cre-Ro sighed and shook so the feathers on his top stuck to all sides. “And it’s not really that heavy, I guess… Smells nice. Wish I had a chance to try it,” he confessed, taking the place over Thomas’s shoulder. “Heyyy, those little black flakes look so light! I think I could…”  
Thomas guessed what was going to follow, but decided to keep quiet and held his breath.  
“Yessssss, it’s working,” Cre-Ro beamed, the flakes of grinded pepper floating around him like a hive of particularly tiny bees. “And so many at once… Aah… aah… aah… AAAAAAASHOO!!!”  
The amateurish sneeze made pepper fly around the whole kitchen; Mo-Pat dropped his knife and hung under the ceiling, while Thomas closed the pan, turned the gas down and hurried out, having grabbed Cre-Ro along the way.   
Lo-Go was already downstairs, mesmerized by what he heard.  
“Was that you, Cre-Ro?” he asked. Cre-Ro twitched under Thomas’s arm, still shaking from the sneeze. “But the ability to sneeze is logically impossible! Talking is a… defloat option? Is that called so, Thomas?”  
“Default,” Thomas corrected.  
“Ah. Default, default, default… We should not be able to sneeze, because we don’t breathe!”  
“A new discovery for you,” Cre-Ro spoke through his nose. “Not everything was recorded, I see.”  
“Cre-Ro, you’re a riddle for me,” Lo-Go confessed.  
Cre-Ro wiggled free and prepared to reply, but all of a sudden froze in midair with his mouth open and frowned in concentration. What now? In a moment it became clear, for a chain of silvery see-through… beads?.. soared in front of Cre-Ro. No, those were not beads. Those were droplets.  
“Come on, give me something to pour them into,” Cre-Ro panted. Mo-Pat was quicker to react and brought an empty glass, holding its edge with his mouth. With a relaxed ‘phew’ Cre-Ro lowered the droplets into it.  
“Warn me next time,” Thomas asked when the complete image of what was going on put itself together in his head (too much had happened in such a short amount of time). “Besides, I haven’t given you the permission to use your powers on me.”  
“There would not be any other chance,” Cre-Ro parried. “Lo-Go, is that okay? Or do all ingredients need to be fresh?”  
“Some things get better with time,” Lo-Go mused, “but I’m not too sure about this. Sweat is easy. I’m only certain that blood needs to be fresh.” He muttered something under his breath (must’ve been reciting the recipe). “I don’t remember anything about the requirements towards the freshness of ingredients. Sincerity – yes, but not freshness.”  
“Sincerity…” Thomas hummed to himself. “I think I know where to get tears from. When acting, you have to do your best to be sincere, otherwise the performance will be corny. Sometimes even crying is needed. What if… Lo-Go?”  
“Hm?”  
“Remember when I wore you? You could talk, but could you… ah, that was a mistake, it’s not physically possible…”  
“Me becoming part of your face is not physically possible too, as well as our entire existence,” Lo-Go objected.   
“I could wear Cre-Ro during the rehearsal. What if it works? It doesn’t say that it has to be a whole fountain of tears, right? Absorbing some of them and then getting them out with your telekinetic powers! Yeah, I agree, that sounds crazy.”  
“Actually it could work,” Lo-Go nodded. “Wood does not get dry too quickly. But you do not know what Cre-Ro is capable of when worn, and neither of us does.”  
“That’s for us to find out.” Thomas did his best to sound optimistic, although he felt heavy-hearted.


	10. Is That Normal?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cre-Ro shows his abilities, and Anx-Vi volunteers to be the first one turned back into human.

Of course, wearing the third mask (namely Cre-Ro) was risky, but sooner or later it would’ve been done. Halfway there, right? And in addition it would not be as risky as wearing his twin, wouldn’t it?.. At least I’m not vanishing in the shadows like with Anx-Vi, Thomas thought in the middle of his act. And Mr. Romulus seemed to be satisfied with the emotions put in the performance, for Lo-Go was not blocking them.  
An ordinary rehearsal, except that it was not. When Thomas reached the ‘Every now and then I’d have a cup of tea’ line, an actual cup of tea appeared in his hand with a light poof out of nowhere. Thomas started, but did not stop his performance, only having put it onto the floor when there was a suitable moment. Rule one: if you wanna be a performance artist, learn not to react. Expect the unexpected. Fake it till you make it…  
“Well done this time.” Mr. Romulus even gave a quiet applause, but then frowned. “Thomas!”  
“Yes, Mr. Romulus?”   
“What was that trick with the teacup for?”  
“I thought that it would improve the performance,” Thomas lied without batting an eyelid. “I mean, those cats do have strange abilities, so why not?”  
“You have been behaving very oddly lately, Thomas. Your emotional input this time was great, and your dancing is not puppet-like anymore, but you’re overzealous. No teacups next time!”  
“Okay,” Thomas sighed and blinked: the contact lenses in his eyes hiding their new highly unnatural color (red) were starting to make him feel uncomfortable. He hastily thought of ‘learning magic tricks’ just to avoid any suspicions when it was the turn of his stage pals to ask questions, although he suspected that some of them… no, it couldn’t be. Even if Joan knew that the mask in his possession, Dor-Me, was alive, no one could’ve known about Thomas’s ‘guests’.  
After the rehearsal Thomas kept quiet to avoid the temptation to speak to Cre-Ro in this state: he didn’t want extra attention. He knew that talking to himself was not the worst habit and sometimes it could even be useful, but not everybody knew it. As a result, he spoke only after practically tearing Cre-Ro off his face at his bathroom.  
“Did you really need to pull that trick, Cre-Ro?”  
“I didn’t know I could do that,” Cre-Ro confessed, shaking his head (as long as it could be applied to a mask). “I don’t know what Scotch is, so it seems okay that I didn’t try to materialize that, right?”  
“Scotch on the rocks,” Thomas muttered, getting the lenses from his eyes and feeling them being far too moist, which then was followed by an odd pulling sensation, as if the tears that got out were not falling, but extracted with a glass dropper. And it appeared to be almost so, for it was Cre-Ro’s doing – he was triumphantly holding the droplets in the air. “Do you really think that these are going to fit for the potion? Lo-Go said that your magic is keen on feelings.”  
“I think they will,” Cre-Ro approved. “Those are tears of relief, after all…” He sent them to the nearest glass on the shelf, then raised it in the air and left the bathroom with it.  
To Thomas’s surprise, the living room and the kitchen were quiet and no one was wreaking havoc, for the only one present was Anx-Vi, who was huddling himself in the corner of the couch. Thomas was already used to the fringed mask often being gloomy, but this time there was something wrong, for usually Anx-Vi would participate in the course of action, poking fun at his mates (in his own specific ways).  
“Anx-Vi? Are you okay?” Thomas asked, sitting down on the couch.  
“We are all merely using you,” Anx-Vi muttered, not turning around. “And you don’t even resist. It seems like – like you’re a very kind person. Or a very dumb one. You don’t even know what could happen, and you agreed to help us.”  
“Since you’ve appeared, I’ve been thinking what it is like not to have anything but your face.” That was true. During several nights since the masks’ arrival Thomas could not sleep for a long time, experimenting and wondering what one could do with a head – a face – only, without arms, legs or anything. The selection of actions appeared to be very limited, even considering that the masks could freely fly around. “And you do remember your… previous life, right? Maybe not remembering it could’ve made you feel better, but this time getting it back could be the only thing capable of it.”  
“How sentimental.” Anx-Vi muttered it under his breath, but turned around. “Although I’m not going to lie, I do want to have arms, legs and everything in between. And-and others want it too… Although you could’ve not undertaken it all. You could’ve just locked us in that chest and forgotten about us, and we wouldn’t have bothered you anymore.”  
“Trust me, you would. I do not understand how people are able to lock their kids in rooms and forget about them for ages.”  
“We are not your kids.”  
“You got the analogy.”  
Anx-Vi slowly soared up.  
“Thomas, may – may I be the first one? I mean, if the potion does not work, I won’t wreak havoc like Du-Ke, or start drama like Cre-Ro, or whimper like Mo-Pat. I’ll be quiet.”  
“Don’t tell me you’re offering yourself as a test subject.”  
“As a… okay, understood. I’m just being selfish.”  
“No, you’re not.” This was said by Ja-De, who smoothly entered the place. “Selfish is not a bad word. Not always.”  
“Ja-De is right. If you want to be the first one, so be it. But the potion needs to be brewed first.”

Lo-Go performed most of the work related to the potion-making himself, from adding the droplets of ‘proofs’ to the pan to mixing them with water. He managed to mutter under his inexistent breath even when holding the ladle in his mouth, controlling the ritual motions. Three times clockwise, one drop of each ingredient, five times counterclockwise. At first Thomas attempted to memorize the process, but then abandoned it. In additions, it occurred to him that Lo-Go hadn’t told him the correct translation of the writings he had copied from the mask on purpose. And there was a good reason… Lo-Go only asked for Thomas’s help near the end of the process, when blowing was required.  
“All right.” Lo-Go stopped stirring the bubbling potion and took a brush in his mouth. “Ready, Anx-Vi?”  
“No,” Anx-Vi replied, but obediently approached to his mate. Lo-Go painted nine stripes on his forehead and cheeks with the potion.   
“Now get down. Thomas, please cover him with that sheet I’ve asked you to bring.”  
Thomas unintentionally thought of a magic show, especially when Anx-Vi vanished under the white cloth. At first it remained almost completely flat, but then it started puffing up, having made everybody present freeze. Even Cre-Ro and Du-Ke were still, their sides pressed to each other (if they were humans, they would’ve definitely been clinging to each other).  
Finally the outline of a human frame became visible. Thomas sat on the edge of the couch and began slowly moving the sheet down. The first thing he saw was a mop of black hair with purple locks, just like Anx-Vi’s ‘fringe’. But the next… oh, the next made his heart skip a beat, for at first he thought his eyes were betraying him. The face of the newly emerged human – Anx-Vi – was identical to his own. Maybe a little bit thinner and with shades under the closed eyes, but it was such.  
“I hope you have a reasonable explanation, Lo-Go,” Thomas mumbled.  
“I think it’s about the adaptation process as well. We could communicate with you from the very beginning, and the new body has to adapt to the environment. Therefore, the first human that Anx-Vi saw after waking up – and I mean you – was used as a pattern. This is only one of the many reasons I can point out.”  
“Wait a moment. Does that mean that if you all gain human bodies… you all will look like me?”  
“Seems so,” Lo-Go nodded.  
Anx-Vi gasped for air, his chest arching upwards, and attempted to sit up, but Thomas laid his hands on his shoulders, keeping him in place. Only now he realized how pale the new version of Anx-Vi was: his own skin seemed much darker in comparison.  
“Why… s-so… heavy?” Anx-Vi mumbled and chewed on his own tongue. “As if… there are… weights tied to me.”  
“A reasonable reaction,” Lo-Go replied. “You got used to being a mask and now you have to get used to this new body.”  
Anx-Vi raised his hand and wiggled his fingers, squinting at them.  
“If I look like Thomas, that explains why I am white,” he muttered. “But why am I feeling… tingly and… and itchy and…” he touched his shoulder where Thomas’s fingers were curled around it. “Is that normal?”  
“I think you’re touch-starved,” Thomas supposed. Anx-Vi shivered. “I’m almost not surprised. Being a piece of wood leaves no chances.”  
Cre-Ro and Du-Ke unstuck from each other and hovered on both sides of the now two humans, observing them.  
“I don’t mind getting such body, but I’d prefer something a bit more muscular,” Cre-Ro stated.  
“Boo-hoo-hoo!” Du-Ke reacted and turned upside down. “And I’d prefer something agile to be able to stand on my head!”  
“Honestly, guys, it’s not selecting a suit in a shop,” Thomas snapped. “Are you feeling better, Anx-Vi?”  
“I’m complete.” Anx-Vi’s fingers curled in a fist and straightened again. “Does that mean I can walk again? And-and see what’s outside? I mean actually see. It’s all so blurry when I’m on your face.”  
“First of all, let’s see how your new body acts,” Lo-Go stated. “Can you help me with the notes, Thomas?”  
“No, that’s not first of all, Lo-Go,” Thomas cut off and helped Anx-Vi, who wrapped the sheet around himself, stand up. “Go to my room and choose something clean to wear, it’s no time to walk around in your birthday suit… what’s up, are you feeling nauseous?”   
“I’m okay, as you say,” Anx-Vi replied and stumbled upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've actually written the scene where Anx-Vi becomes human a long time ago, but I had no idea how to get to it. Finally.


End file.
